# Mauve, Verdant, Puce and Burnt Umber? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 9, 2003, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278 "2003-11-09T19:42:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/21 "2003-11-10T15:53:42Z")
My problem is that paint samples and crayons to my eyes don’t match up properly with the colours that I see in fabrics, in print, and on monitors. Does anyone else find this? ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/22 "2003-11-10T15:55:02Z")
I forgot mauve. Interestingly enough (?), mauve was the [first artficial dye](http://myrtle-beach-golf-course-guide.com/shopping/shop-item_id-0393020053-search_type-AsinSearch-locale-us.html) and was created by accident during an experiment to sythesise quinine from coal tar. It’s a pinkish purple. Reference books? Well the link above takes you to one about mauve (it’s out of stock on the Amazon site), and I’m sure your nearest art supply shop will have a good book on the general use of colour and pigment origins. I couldn’t recommend one particular title off the top of my head, but if I think of one I’ll be back to this thread. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/23 "2003-11-10T16:11:53Z")
How about Prussian blue? That’s a dark blue pigment used since the early C18[sup]th[/sup] and forms a base for Prussic acid. The FDA has recently approved it as a treatment for radioactive illness, but in the past it has been implicated in illness among artists who licked their brushes too often! While googling, I found [this site](http://webexhibits.org/pigments/), which explains stuff about lots of common pigments. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/24 "2003-11-10T16:41:46Z")
Thanks for the link, **everton**. I’ll be spending some time browsing through the stuff there. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/25 "2003-11-10T16:48:41Z")
BTW **Askia** : that link shows samples of several of the more common color names, so may be just what you were looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/26 "2003-11-10T20:24:52Z")
If you’re looking for REAL color names, artist’s paints will help you out. If you want delicious sounding colors, Benjamin Moore and his ilk will provide those silly color names that sound so great. Like “mushroom” instead of “off-white” or “pumpkin” instead of “orange”. ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/27 "2003-11-11T04:03:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zoe \* > Maybe it’s my monitor, but those colors didn’t look true to me, **Urban Ranger**. Look at their “chocolate,” for example. Too red. And their khaki is too yellow. I think it’s your monitor 😉 That’s a problem with colours on the Web. But I digress. ---
**Author:** ![SanguineSpider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SanguineSpider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanguineSpider)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/28 "2003-11-11T04:09:41Z")
Puce - PYOOS - is exactly the color of dried blood. ??? No, try again… it’s a light grey. ---
**Author:** ![SanguineSpider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SanguineSpider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanguineSpider)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/29 "2003-11-11T04:12:48Z")
NEVER YOU MIND… I’m like smoking tainted CRACK! DA, someone take me there right now? Please??? ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/30 "2003-11-11T15:14:37Z")
One bit of advice: as an amateur oil painter, I can attest that one can rely on the names given paints sold in an art supply store or a book on fine art instruction much more readily than one can rely on the names given to paints sold as wall coverings. Artists have a specific color in mind when they ask a clerk for “scarlet” or “crimson” or “burnt sienna”, and marketers of oils, acrylics, etc. adhere to standard terms. House paints, by contrast, are often given quirky, original names with the intent of giving them “sales appeal”; if a particular hardware supplier chooses to name a shade “Irish Linen” or “Arizona Sunset”, that will mean something when looking for paint of a particular brand, but people aren’t likely to know what color, exactly, you mean if you use such a name in any other context. I’m of the opinion that probably _isn’t_ any such color as “taupe” anymore. Paul Fussel has written that it is just a pretentious synonym for “mouse gray”. Maybe it was once, but looking in clothes catalogs, I’ve seen it applied to gray, tan, and even diluted purples and pinks. And yes, I’ve had my color vision tested, and it is rated as excellent. ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/31 "2003-11-11T15:20:28Z")
Just now I did a Google “Images” search for “taupe”. It turns out it is also used as a name for dark maroon, light green, light brown, and dark brown. ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/32 "2003-11-11T15:43:40Z")
The discussion above about “puce” got me to wondering. A quick Google search reveals that puce _is_ the color of dried blood. It is also gray. It is also the color I always thought it was, a kind of very light and very bright purple which is akin to shock pink. A check of several sites demonstrates that it is also used to describe the very pale yellowish green color of some antique bottles. Mostly, I think it’s another word for “taupe”. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/33 "2003-11-11T19:28:03Z")
Can you give any cites for those uses **slipster**? ---
**Author:** ![Empress\_Jolrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@Empress\_Jolrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Empress_Jolrael)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/34 "2003-11-11T22:01:24Z")
As much as I hate to interrupt the problem-solving, I’d like to put in my $0.02 **Askia** , if said lady can’t accept you for yourself, color-vocabulary-impairment and all, she’s not worth it. Mauve? Puce? Ecru? What happened to red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black, and white, with “light,” “dark,” and “bright” as modifications? _shakes head in disgust_ Yes, I am female. ---
**Author:** ![SanguineSpider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SanguineSpider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanguineSpider)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2003, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/35 "2003-11-12T06:23:38Z")
Sanguine is the friggin’ BEST!! ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2003, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/36 "2003-11-12T06:45:56Z")
Jeez man, just make them up! _Burned ass, summer duodenum, torched caddy…_ ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2003, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/37 "2003-11-12T11:08:04Z")
I don’t know about sanguine being the best, but it is another real colour – blood-coloured (yes, _again_). It came to us from Latin via Middle French in the C14[sup]th[/sup] and is occasionally used in heraldry. Talking of which, people might ask you what we called the colour orange before we knew about the fruit. The answer is that there’s another occasional heraldic colour called tenné (or tanné), which is a sort of muddy orange (it actually means “tanned”). The word has the same etymology as tawny. That’s what people called orange-coloured things before they’d heard of the fruit. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2003, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/38 "2003-11-12T11:56:31Z")
So the name of the tangerine (which is named after Tanger, according to [m-w.com](http://m-w.com)) is just a coincidence? ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2003, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/39 "2003-11-12T12:13:27Z")
I don’t know, but I would expect the tangerine got its name because that was where it was imported from. That’s why we call the Christmas bird after the country of Turkey even though it originated on the other side of the Atlantic. I notice that the M-W site dates tangerine to 1842, by which time tanné would have been superseded by orange for everyday use. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278/40 "2003-11-12T13:12:29Z")
I’ve over-simplified the turkey story, btw. Here’s a Staff Report giving the long version in case you’re interested: [Is turkey (the bird) named after Turkey (the country) or vice versa?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mturkey.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mauve-verdant-puce-and-burnt-umber/212278.md?page=3)